Workshops

Monday, March 25, 2013

three lovely days to play

I have been in Albany at a three day encaustic workshop with three different tutors. I really enjoyed it because I wanted to learn about Encaustic wax stuff and how I might use it in my textile work. I flew down and back, shared a room with a lovely lady from Geraldton, went walking every morning, had my coffee and breakfast at the Vancouver Cafe - albanypetphotography.com and all of our lunches and dinners were catered by them too. only problem was that dinner was so early, everyone was off to bed very very early and I was let standing at 9pm all alone.

Day one was Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch who is one of the encaustic gurus and she went through all the basics and then more. I was a little daunted when I arrived to find I had paid for a large pile of very thick boards (which are now on their way in someone else's car) - I enjoyed the play but boards are not really me so I took the opportunity to try other things as well. Watercolour paper - fibres - fabric - stitching - I can see it all happening.....

This was what I think might be a sort of landscape - lots of people were very abstract and I didn't actually enjoy just meaninglessly dropping wax - for me it needed to do something. When you are in a workshop situation you don't always get to play with the colours you like but I loved the encaustic medium - which we sell now - and I loved the encaustic blocks which we don't sell yet because of the extreme price I have to pay at the moment. but we do have the little ones very affordable which are very good too. I am off to buy cake tins etc to melt my wax in.

I did some image transfer and found some of my skeleton leaves and of course happened to have a gold shiva stik in my bag. I also loved using the pan pastels which we should have soon as well.

I took very little with me because I wanted to have an open mind - of course I wished I had taken lots of stuff once I got started but for this piece I used heavy water colour paper - alcohol inks and stitched silk rods. I discovered foils work very well - stencils are ideal - TAP is excellent and more.

Day 2 was Trace Willans and she is everything natural so we did some natural plant dyeing on water colour paper, used natural pigments - out will come my wonderful collection from Rousillon - and other things but definitely natural.

I went to the farmers market on Sat morning and brought home some super thick strawberry jam, strawberry vinegar and olive oil and managed to buy a couple of big blocks of bees wax as well.

Day 3 was Julia Sutton and 2 and 3 D. Julia got us to come up with a number from 10 to 30 and collect the appropriate number of something from out in the environs. I have a thing about smallness for travel so I found 13 wood chips in the garden wrapped them with silk thread and waxed the lot. Then I ventured out again and collected another 13 which I wrapped in plaster bandage and waxed each and wrapped each and then wrapped everything - pleased with this because I am working more into what I might do.

There was a variance of people there - people who obviously loved to draw and were not into textiles and others. So a great diverse group. So now - I just have to find time and get exploring more.

When I got home lastnight Ian had a bbq all prepared and it was great to sit outside and enjoy it. not necessarily a good weekend for our rugby teams....

Love all the new things you are trying with encaustic wax,I have been transfering wax pictures and stitching back into them with various threads. You are opening a new world and look forward to hearing more of your encaustic wax journey.

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About Me

I am a textile artist and owner of The Thread Studio. I am passionate about all areas of textile art and try to be as cutting edge as I can. I enjoy machine and hand stitching, developing ideas using a needle felting machine and playing and experimenting with all manner of textiley and mixed media stuff. I guess I am an art journaller of a different variety before the title became trendy but my journals are more the stitchy variety than the paper types. I have been a teacher for many years and run a number of on-line and in the flesh workshops. I have written a book on using a needlefelting machine 'Surface Tension' and four Let's Play booklets. I have been published in many magazines around the world. Our new e-mag threads.In-fusion was launched in June 2013 with a fabulous response - Issue 7 is now available for you to buy. And I am a passionate All Black supporter - some would call that a tragedy.....I am looking forward to the World Cup in 2015 - and of course shall wait with baited breath to see how the Hurricanes go in 2015.
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